Ezekiel's ears where ringing from the loud sound, but not only that his heart was racing. He was nervous, frightened and angered. He knew what had just happened, but he couldn't bring himself to accept it. He tried to create alternative scenarios in his mind, but the smell confirmed it. Poachers.
Ezekiel got up off the ground and frantically shouted, "What are you doing!?"
He didn't want, nor care for answers, he just saw that as the only way to express himself. He looked on the ground and saw the leopard with a bullet in its side, gasping for air, fighting to stay alive and a man with a gun was standing over that leopard with a smile on its face. In a fit of rage, Ezekiel charged at the man and tackled him to the ground. Ezekiel was shocked at how easy it was to take the man down, but he didn't know what to do next, since he didn't know how to fight, but the man did, he pulled out a knife from his pocket and stabbed it in Ezekiel's thigh and pushed Ezekiel off of him.
"ARGHH!" Ezekiel screamed.
The man got up off the floor and looked over at Ezekiel holding his thigh in pain and with no regard for the fact he was a child, he went to pick up the gun to kill him.
"Boy focus. Get up run before he kills you." "I can't, my leg." "Its only a shallow cut, you'll be fine."
Ezekiel got himself up off the floor, but before he came up with a plan of action, the man, who he tackled to the floor, that had a dirty brown beard was holding a gun at Ezekiel's face.
"Who are you kid and why are you here?" The bearded man asked.
"Why did you kill that leopard?" Ezekiel asked angrily.
"Alright then don't answer my question." The bearded man replied.
The bearded man clocked his gun and Ezekiel froze. He didn't know what to do. He could only stare at the barrel of the gun.
"Boy listen to me. If you were a normal kid I would understand your worries, but you're a Fushigi. You're stronger and faster than this man, you're better in every way, just close the gap, so he can't shoot you, all it takes is one punch to the face and you can knock him down." "But I can't move." "You can't move because you tell yourself you're scared. Just step in and punch his face."
Ezekiel grit his teeth, balled his fist and stepped in…
(BANG)
(THUD)
Another gunshot. This time the gunshot was at Ezekiel and only one of them remained standing.
Ezekiel slowly opened his eyes and saw the bearded man, with the gun in hand, but Ezekiel was standing over the bearded man and he had a bloody nose and unconscious, while Ezekiel was unscathed.
But before Ezekiel could have time to celebrate a man with a buzz cut and a shotgun came over and saw what happened and shouted, "Who are you?"
Ezekiel turned around slowly and saw a man with a buzz cut holding a shotgun in his hand. He was a couple metres away from Ezekiel, so he couldn't lunge at him like he did the other guy.
"Kid are you the person who knocked out my friend?" The man with the buzz cut asked.
Ezekiel was so nervous his words were stuck in his throat. He tried to throw them out, but all that came out were murmurs.
"Boss, I found some jungle kid." The man shouted.
The man walked towards Ezekiel and said, "come over here and I wont hurt you."
Ezekiel nervously walked towards the man and the man walked towards him, with his gun down, then once Ezekiel was within striking range, he used the side of his gun to hit Ezekiel in the head, but for Ezekiel the strike was slow, so he instinctively squatted down to the ground to dodge, but the man then aimed the shotgun at Ezekiel and just before he shot, Ezekiel rolled to the side out of shooting range. Ezekiel's first instinct was to run away and escape.
"Don't run, it sounds like he needs to reload, which means he can only shoot one shot at a time, so get the gun off of him, before he's ready to shoot again." "But what if I'm not quick enough?" "All you need to do is jump up off the ground quickly and take the gun off of him. Its basically the same as doing burpees."
Ezekiel took Shinka's advice and jumped as fast as he could off of the ground, so he could stand up and conveniently, he hit his head on the shotgun, which knocked it out of the man's hand. Ezekiel and the man were both in shock at what happened, but the man had experience fighting, unlike Ezekiel, so he grabbed Ezekiel and tried to throw him to the floor, but Ezekiel stayed strong on his feet.
"Boy you're a Fushigi, compared to the average man your like a profession fighter, so now you throw him to the ground."
With little faith in his strength, Ezekiel grabbed onto the man's triceps, while he swung his body to side, which threw the man to the floor. As the man was falling to the floor, Ezekiel was in shock at his own strength, but Ezekiel was too complacent, because the man with the buzz cut reached for his shotgun off the floor, but due to Shinka's warning, Ezekiel kicked his hand away, which made the man hold his hand in pain. Ezekiel then stamped on the shotgun and said, "Stop killing the animals!"
However, the man on the floor wasn't remorseful, he was chuckling. Ezekiel didn't understand why he was chuckling in a situation like that, but then…
The smell of smoke engulfed his nose as he was enveloped with fear. He didn't know what happened, but the feeling in his stomach screamed at him that something wasn't right. The sounds of insects he was so used to hearing had disappeared, all he could feel was despair. Suddenly something warm was pushing against his cheek and he heard the sound of a gun click and then heard the words, "BOO!"